Facebook Kathleen Zellner
Kathleen Zellner is the feisty and outspoken appellate attorney for Making a Murderer 2’s Steven Avery. She wasn’t featured in the first season, but she’s front-and-center in the sequel.
Avery’s nephew, Brendan Dassey, obtained temporary vindication before a federal magistrate, but remains behind bars when that decision was overturned. For Avery’s lawyer, though, the court battle has been even tougher. The second season of the popular show highlights the post-conviction process, and Zellner’s efforts to get Avery’s murder conviction overturned. (You can see crime scene photos from the case here.)
Netflix has provided a brief overview of season 2. In a press statement, Netflix explained, “Emmy Award-winning filmmakers Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos return to the Midwest where they have exclusive access to Steven Avery and his co-defendant and nephew Brendan Dassey, their families and the legal teams fighting for justice on their behalf. Over the course of 10 new episodes, Making a Murderer Part 2 provides an in-depth look at the high-stakes postconviction process, exploring the emotional toll the process takes on all involved.”
Zellner’s celebrity has grown since she signed on to the Avery case shortly after the first Netflix series came out. Part 2 delivers as promised; it puts Zellner at center stage as she pokes holes in the prosecution’s theories about the murder, from the blood pattern evidence to where the victim was burned.
Zellner is a suburban Chicago attorney who began representing Steven Avery after Netflix’ Making a Murderer garnered an international following. It showcased the trials of Avery and Dassey – who were both convicted in state court in the murder of photographer Teresa Halbach, who had come to the Avery family junkyard to photograph a van.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Zellner Has Made a Career Out of Getting Convictions Overturned
Kathleen Zellner (middle). (Facebook/Kathleen Zellner)
Zellner’s law firm website says: “Rewriting the ending for the wrongly convicted.” The oddity of the Steven Avery case is that he was wrongfully convicted – and spent years in prison – for a sexual assault he did not commit before the Halbach murder.
Chicago Magazine dubbed her “The Rescuer.”
“ It’s not the science it is WHO is doing the science” that must be exposed in every wrongful conviction case. #GilchristSyndrome #LabRats #ForensicFrauds @lifeafterten @michellemalkin #MakingAMurderer
Zellner has been an attorney for more than 26 years in the Chicago area. Newsweek says she has “secured the exoneration of 17 men and won almost $90 million from wrongful conviction and medical malpractice lawsuits.” The news magazine said she helped free four men convicted in the murder of a Chicago medical student. She also once got a killer to confess on the witness stand, freeing another man off death row.
She defended Ryan Ferguson, who spent 10 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of a Missouri murder.
The New York Times said Zellner once sued Lake County, Illinois for a man named Jerry Hobbs who “spent five years in jail for killing his daughter and her friend; he was released last year after sperm found inside one of the girls was linked to a convicted rapist and accused murderer.”
She has been involved in many prominent cases.
Filed a 109 page lawsuit with 23 counts on Friday against MSU and Larry Nassar. Institutionalized evil is the worst. @lifeafterten @michellemalkin #RightingtheWrongs
Three innocent men enjoying a beautiful summer day in Chicago w/their lawyer. @lifeafterten @EFMoriarty @michellemalkin #BillMarioKZRyan
She once represented a serial killer, Larry Eyler, trying to get him off death row, but, after he died, revealed he had confessed to her multiple times, Newsweek says.
2. Zellner’s Husband Is a Commodities & Bond Trader & She Likes Pistol Shooting
Kathleen Zellner is a suburban Chicago attorney. (Facebook/Kathleen Zellner)
Law Crossing.com says it was Zellner’s husband who encouraged her to go to law school. The site says she also likes swimming and pistol shooting. Jessica Biel was supposed to play her in a movie based on the serial killer confessing to her.
“She worked for several big firms after graduating from Northern Illinois Law School and defended hospitals and insurance companies,” the article says, before she started her own law firm. She has received major awards as a lawyer, including from the American Bar Association.
The Columbian Blogs says she secured five multi-million dollar verdicts in a single year.
Kathleen Zellner. (Getty)
She declined to tell the reporters how much she earns. She made an analogy between trial work and race car driving, Law Crossing.com says.
Zellner’s daughter, Anne. (Facebook/Anne Zellner)
Chicago Magazine says her husband, Robert Zellner, “held a post-doctorate fellowship in econometrics (he went on to be CEO of CitiCorp Futures Inc. and CitiCorp Options).” They have a daughter, Anne Zellner, who is a lawyer in Denver, says the magazine.
3. Zellner Was Born in Texas to a Geologist & a Pediatric Nurse
Kathleen Zellner. (Facebook/Kathleen Zellner)
Chicago Magazine says Zellner was born May 7, 1957, to Owen Daniel and Winifred Thomas in Midland, Texas. She “was the second oldest of eight children,” said Chicago Magazine, adding that her mother was a pediatric nurse and her father was “a geologist and engineer for oil company ConocoPhillips.”
Zellner graduated in 1981 from Northern Illinois University College of Law and clerked for a 2nd District Appellate Court justice, Chicago Magazine said. She considered being a history professor instead of a lawyer, and once said she thinks women make better lawyers than men do.
4. Zellner Has Promised Big Revelations in the Case
Kathleen Zellner, in a photo she posted on Facebook.
Zellner made it clear from the start that she intends to prove Avery’s innocence, despite the complex forensic and circumstantial evidence against him. Newsweek says she watched the Netflix’ series in her 3,000-square-foot home theater and grew angry because she felt Avery was treated as disposable due to his social class.
The Averys ran a junkyard in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, where some of them were regarded a bit as social outcasts. The first Netflix series argued this bias played a role in Avery’s conviction (and his earlier exoneration for a sexual assault that he did not commit years before.)
Zellner told The New York Times, “she has a different person in mind who she believes killed Ms. Halbach” without naming that person.
In 2017, Zellner filed a lengthy motion asking for a new trial for Avery, but it was rejected by a Wisconsin judge. You can read that court motion here.
She told Newsweek she has “cellphone records that show Halbach left Avery’s property before she was killed.” She also claimed that, “Halbach made two calls to a phone number that belonged to a man recently charged with sex crimes in Arizona,” said Newsweek.
Zellner told The New York Times: “There is evidence that already exists in the case that points to a different location and a different suspect. We’ve got a combination of forensic evidence and a tip from somebody that we’ve interviewed multiple times that we think is credible.”
Zellner’s website pledges, “Our goal is to vacate Mr. Avery’s 2007 conviction and sentence.” It also solicits donations for his legal defense.
Avery’s past appellate attorneys had filed a brief that listed four people they said were alternative suspects in the case. The trial court did not allow them to present those theories in court, saying they had not offered any concrete evidence tying those people to the crime (other than the fact they were on the property that day and some had unsavory pasts). The Wisconsin appellate court upheld that trial court decision in the past. However, Zellner told the Times her suspect is someone new.
5. Zellner Frequently Tweets About the Case on Social Media, Including Posting Notes From Avery
Times Square today!! Shine the Light. @lifeafterten @michellemalkin @EFMoriarty #MakingaMurderer2
On Twitter, Zellner has been passionately tweeting about the case, providing clues to her defense team’s approach. She also posts letters from Avery. In one, he denied his former appellate attorneys’ accusations that some of his relatives might make plausible alternative suspects.
STEVEN AVERY IS INNOCENT—NO DOUBT!! #WeMoveMountains @lifeafterten @michellemalkin @EFMoriarty #MakingAMurderer #MakingExonorees
On social media, Zellner has given hints about the case, saying that Halbach left the Avery property and bringing up the old defense team theory that evidence was planted by law enforcement officers in the case, which they deny.
So far only 1 Judge has ruled on Avery. At least 10 more will review before a final decision is made— on this evidence. If he is not freed we will file again. Never going to end until he is free. @lifeafterten @michellemalkin #makinganexonoree
She has promoted Making a Murderer 2 on Twitter, writing, “Now the World Court of Public Opinion Will Decide.”
In one motion Zellner filed in the Avery case, Avery alleges his blood was planted in the victim’s car by law enforcement and wants the most scientific testing available to prove it. That was the theory advanced by his first defense team and rejected by a jury.
The motion does not reveal an alternative suspect by name but does refer to an “Individual A and B” as being present at key moments. She was more specific in a post-conviction motion that sought a new trial for Avery; it was denied by a judge.
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Kathleen Zellner, Steven Avery’s Lawyer: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know